Contents

Summary

Fed up with the team not listening to him, Robin makes a deal with a sock puppet which turns him and the other Titans into puppets.

Plot

The episode starts out with Robin playing with puppets in his bedroom. Each puppet resembles one of the members of his team. As Robin plays with the puppets, he makes them do everything Robin says. Robin's watch goes off, reminding him it is time for his team to get some training done, so he leaves his puppets in his room. When Robin arrives in the living room, he orders the Titans to do whatever he says. Raven reminds him that he is their leader on missions, not at home. With that, Robin nearly explodes with anger, but quickly returns to his room.

Robin uses his puppet stage to act out what should have happened if the other Titans had listened to him, allowing him to relieve stress. Robin suddenly stops playing and realizes all of the other Titans are watching him play with his puppets. Robin tries to hide his stage, but Cyborg calls him weird, prompting Robin to use his stage again. Robin acts out a scene starring him and Beast Boy, in which Beast Boy tells him he is not weird. After seeing him act it out, Beast Boy and Starfire snatch the Robin and Beast Boy puppets from his hands. They announce that they want to be weird too. Cyborg and Raven run over to the stage, and everyone grabs their own puppet. Robin begins to freak out because the other Titans are messing with his puppets, but realizes they aren't listening. Robin uses the Robin puppet yell at the other puppets, and the other Titans become frustrated that they can't move their character. Robin demonstrates how to move himself, but it is easier said than done, and the others only slightly improve. Robin becomes impatient and yells at them for not listening to his instructions on how to use them. Everyone finally becomes annoyed and leaves him alone in his room.

Later that day, Robin is shocked to see Cyborg and Beast Boy have built a wooden door, that leads to nowhere, into one of the Tower's windows. Robin glances out the door and sees a huge drop to the bottom, and asks why they didn't ask his permission first. Robin becomes really annoyed, and runs to his room to find his puppets. To his horror, the puppet stage is missing! Cyborg says that he and Beast Boy were using it outside the door. Robin uses the wooden door, and realizes too late that he had been pranked.

Robin lands safely in a bush, and starts yelling in anger. He says aloud that he wishes the Titans were more like his puppets. The magical Puppet Wizard suddenly appears, and gives Robin an offer. If he would be willing to give up his and the other Titans' mortal souls, he would make them "his puppets". Robin accepts the offer and signs the contract. POOF! Robin's teammates are suddenly on a stage that looks just like their living room. They become horrified when they realize that they are puppets themselves. Robin arrives and tells them that because they are puppets, they have to listen to him. Robin himself is a puppet, however, so he still has no control over the others. The other Titans decide they want their lives back, but Robin tells them it is too late. Raven opens her ancient legends book to find a story about the Puppet Wizard. The story says if they can defeat him before sunset, they will regain their lives. If they fail to defeat him, they will become the Wizard's lifeless puppets forever.

The Titans begin a quest to find the Puppet Wizard's castle. They travel through the jungle, the desert, a concert, and up a mountain. At almost sunset, the Titans arrive at the castle, where the Puppet Wizard is waiting for them. The Wizard tells them that they are too late, and they will never defeat him. Immediately, Raven pummels the wizard with a boulder, Cyborg shoots his shoulder cannon at the Wizard, and Robin starts hitting him with a pencil. Beast Boy transforms into a lion and attacks the Wizard. Lastly, Starfire shoots a gigantic beam at the Wizard, which causes him to burst into flames, and run away.

The Titans suddenly regain their souls and their bodies, seconds before it would have been too late. The Titans ask Robin if he has anything he wants to say to them. Back at the tower, Robin apologizes to the Titans. The camera zooms out to reveal that he is not really apologizing to the Titans, but to his puppet Titans. The puppet Titans insist that it was not Robin's fault, but their own. The Robin's Starfire puppet begins to make out with the Robin puppet. The camera pans out again to reveal the real Titans watching Robin's show, with horrified looks of shock. Everyone leaves but Starfire, who watches with shock as Robin continues to make his puppets kiss.

Characters

Songs

Trivia

The title of this episode (along with "Real Magic") was leaked when the details for the Season 1, Part 2 DVD were released.

All of the episodes in Season 1 were only produced in 2013.

The season finale marks the last episode to use the 2008 closing Warner Bros. Animation logo.

It was also mentioned by Scott Menville in an interview with CBR, saying it was an episode he was looking forward to in the future.

This is the first episode to air in its new time slot, which airs on Thursday nights at 6:00 PM.

The backdrop of Robin's puppet stage contains many interesting features:

On the wall is a Teen Titans Go! promotional poster.

Also on the wall there is a live action picture of two boys dressed as Cyborg and Beast Boy.

Robin is never shown signing the contract, but merely shakes hands with the Puppet Wizard.

While the puppets are in the living room, a person's hand can be very clearly seen fiddling with the strings. However, this may have been done on purpose to look sloppy.

Similarly, while Beast Boy is beating up the Puppet Wizard as a lion, the back of the paper lion can be seen with tape over the stick holding the lion.

The puppets and set were provided by "The Puppet Shop LLC", and the puppet sequences done by "Pure Imagination Studios".

Despite this being the finale to season 1, season 2 episodes started to air one week later.

References

This episode appears to be a reference to the original Teen Titans episode "Switched", where the Titans also play with puppet versions of themselves, before the male Titans get transformed into puppets by a villain called the "Puppet King".

A New Teen Titans #1 and a Detective Comics #27 are clearly visible on the floor of Robin's puppet stage.

On the floor on the puppet stage, the game controller seen is similar to the controller for the PS3.

Beast Boy's line "There ain't no strings on us, dude" is a reference to the song "I've Got No Strings" from Disney's Pinocchio, where one of the lines is "There are no strings on me".

When Puppet Raven is looking out the window, a Wayne Tech building can be seen, which is owned by Bruce Wayne.

Continuity

This is the third time Robin imitates the other Titans' voices, which he previously did in "Nose Mouth" and "Uncle Jokes".

The reccurring movies "The Dark Knight Snoozes" and "Plastic Man 3" are seen again at the start, when Puppet Raven sorts them.

Robin once again tries to get the Titans to partake in a fitness workout, which he first did in "Gorilla", although this time none of the Titans listen to him.

Robin having Puppet Beast Boy make him a sandwich is similar to the order Robin gives Beast Boy at the end of "Gorilla".

Starfire is once again reading a magazine titled "The Magazine", which she previously read in "Legs".

This is the second time Robin gets "crazy eyes", which were first seen in "Staff Meeting".

The dramatic sound that plays when Robin gets crazy eyes is also heard in "Nose Mouth" when he's sleep deprived.

The backdrop that appears when Robin is panting whilst he has crazy eyes also appeared in "Matched".

This is the second episode to include lengthy live-action scenes. The first was "Dreams".

This is the third episode to be based off of an ancient legend. The first was "Legendary Sandwich" and the second was "Staff Meeting".

Starfire discovers Robin's crush on her at the end of the episode.

The rest of the Titans no longer listen to Robin because they all became the new team leaders in "No Power."

Errors

Robin was able to trade Raven's soul to the Puppet Wizard, even though in "Salty Codgers", Raven stated that she had no soul. This error also happens in several later episodes, which may indicate that she was lying.